Terms of service

Updated: 2018-10-05

The gist

We run a social network called Albin and provide related apps. Currently we have a web app and an Android app named Albin.social. The basic service is free, and we offer paid plans for club membership. This network is open to the public and designed to be a place to express yourself. However, be responsible in what you publish and follow the code of conduct. In particular, make sure that none of the prohibited items (like spam, viruses, or serious threats of violence) appear on your profile, posts or messages. If you find content that you believe violates these Terms of Service, please contact @support@albin.social or use the other available contact information.

The benefit

A large point of the existence of our company is to provide something more than the big companies. We want to provide a basic free service, just like the big companies, and also provide a better paid service that let you opt out of things like information collection and advertising. Our paid service is not fully developed yet, and it might come with different terms of service.

If there is something you don’t like in this document, please tell us, so that we can consider your opinion when we create the terms for our paid plans. We have sometimes seen other companies with their terms of service and realized that with a lack of competing companies, we had to somewhat reluctantly accept their terms, or live in a cave without using their services. So far we have not chosen the cave, but now, we’re at the point of either starting this better company, Albin, where you have a choice to opt out, or go living in a cave. You have a chance to look at other companies, and then tell us how we could do it better.

Our services

The following terms and conditions (“Terms”) govern all use of Albin, all content, services, and products available at or through the websites, including, but not limited to, Albin.social both for web, including the club areas, and for Android (“Albin.social”), Albin.chat (“Albin.chat”), and Albin.cc (“Albin.cc”), (taken together, our “Services”). Our Services are offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, Albin Apps privacy policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time by Albin Apps (collectively, the “Agreement”). You agree that we may automatically upgrade our Services, and these Terms will apply to any upgrades.

Some aspects of our service include public and personal feeds, direct messages and generally a social network. Other aspects are targeted ads, that you can opt out of by purchasing a paid plan. To target ads we collect information and, again, with a paid plan you can opt opt out of such information collection.

We believe that information that is never collected cannot be used, stolen or abused. Just like the big companies, we also use any information we have for a variety of things. For example to analyze, protect, innovate and improve our services and to prevent abuse. We aim to let you opt out of as many information collection areas as possible and we’re not using any information we don’t have.

We refer to,

Albin Apps – Johan Sundström,

C/O Betahaus,

Köpenicker Straße 154-157,

10997 Berlin,

Germany,

collectively as “Albin”, “Albin Apps”, “us”, “our” or “we” throughout this agreement.

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to become bound by the Terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree to all the Terms of this Agreement, then you may not access or use any of our Services. If these Terms are considered an offer by Albin, acceptance is expressly limited to these Terms.

Our Services are not directed to children. Access to and use of our Services is only for those over the age of 16. If you are younger than this, you may not register for or use our Services. Any person who registers as a user or provides their personal information to our Services represents that they are 16 years of age or older.

Your Albin account

Use of our Services requires an Albin account. You can use a pseudonym, but you must provide us with accurate and up to date information when needed. If you create an Albin account, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account. Please use a good password, it’s your responsibility to keep it secure, and consider enabling two factor authentication. You are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the account. You must immediately notify Albin Apps of any unauthorized uses of your account, or any other breaches of security. Albin Apps will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

Responsibility of Contributors

If you publish content on your profile page, make comments, post material to Albin.social and our other Services, post links on our services, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available (any such material, “Content”), you are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content or your conduct. That is the case regardless of what form the Content takes, which includes, but is not limited to text, photo, video, audio, or code. By using Albin, Albin.social and our other Services, you represent and warrant that your Content and conduct do not violate these Terms, our policies or the code of conduct.

You grant us a license to use your content, but you keep your ownership of the content. When you delete your content or account, this license ends. Be aware that your content may continue to appear if you have shared it, and others have not deleted it. A standard license like this is necessary for making a Service like ours available.

You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content for the purpose of making the Albin Service and products available.

If you want, you can give us feedback on how our paid service could come with a different and in your opinion better terms of service. We’re glad that you have read this far in this important document. Please keep reading until the end and pay special attention to the “Third parties” section. If you want, you can give us feedback if it would be better in the future to disconnect from other social network operators. There might be good reasons to do this, or not, depending on how you view topics such as licensing and privacy.

If you delete Content, Albin will use reasonable efforts to remove it from Albin, but you acknowledge that caching, backups or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable. Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Albin has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Albins sole discretion, (i) change or reclaim your username or website’s URL due to prolonged inactivity or for any other reason, (ii) refuse or remove any content that, in Albins reasonable opinion, violates any Albin policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (iii) terminate or deny access to and use of Albin to any individual or entity for any reason. Albin will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

Prohibited Uses

When using Albin, you agree not to:

Publish material or engage in activity that is illegal under applicable law.

Overburden Albins systems, as determined by us in our sole discretion.

Disclose the sensitive personal information of others.

Send spam or bulk unsolicited messages.

Interfere with, disrupt, or attack any service or network.

Distribute material that is or enables malware, spyware, adware, or other malicious code.

Display advertising other than through our paid services.

Use bots, for example to automatically post or analyze content.

Responsibility of Visitors.

Albin has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material posted to our Services and also not to connected services, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating our Services, Albin does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful, or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Our Services may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. Our Services may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. Albin disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by logged in users or non logged in visitors of our Services, or from any downloading by those, of content there posted. You can report content that breaks our code of conduct.

Ads, Fees, Payment, and Renewal.

Fees. Some of our Services are offered for a fee — such as club membership, while other Services may be free with optional paid upgrades, such as a Albin (“No-Ads”). By using a Paid Service, you agree to pay the specified fees, which we’ll bill or charge you for in regular intervals (Monthly or Annually), on a pre-pay basis until you cancel, which you can do at any time by contacting the relevant support team.

Withdrawal period. Up to 14 days after a purchase, you can change your mind as per EU law.

Payment. If your payment fails or Paid Services are otherwise not paid for on time, we may immediately cancel or revoke your access to the Paid Services. If you contact your bank or credit card company to decline or reverse the charge of fees for Paid Services, we may revoke your access to our Services in general.

Automatic Renewal. To ensure uninterrupted service, our Paid Services are automatically renewed. This means that unless you cancel a Paid Service before the end of the applicable subscription period, it will automatically renew, and you authorize us to invoice you or use any payment mechanism we have on record for you to collect the then-applicable subscription fee (as well as any taxes). Your Paid Services are renewed for the same interval of time. For example, if you purchase a Albin annual plan, you will be charged each year.

Refunds. While you may cancel a Paid Service at any time, refunds are issued in our sole discretion while obeying applicable laws.

Fee Changes. We may change our fees at any time. When applicable, we may give you advance notice of the fee changes. If you don’t agree with the fee changes, you can cancel your Paid Service.

Advertisements. Albin may display advertisements, unless you have paid for a plan that includes the removal of Albin ads.

Paid membership. The paid memberships may have additional Terms of service. By signing up for a paid membership, you agree to abide by such terms and conditions.

Content Posted on Other Websites.

We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which Albin links, and that link to Albin. We do not have any control over those non-Albin websites, and we are not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-Albin website, Albin does not represent or imply that it endorses such website. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Albin disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-Albin websites, webpages and connected networks and services.

Third Party Services.

Albin is connected, in a so called Federated network “the Fediverse”, with third party services. Be aware that some of your content and data may be passed to the respective third party, and the respective third party’s terms of service, privacy policy, and other policies may apply. We are not involved in these relationships. If you do not like the idea of a federated network, please do not use Albin at all, but in that case, tell us, either directly or by using the tag #federation on other social networks. We’re evaluating if a federated network is a sensible way forward, or if we should turn it off and provide a more traditional service.

Third party services include, but are not limited to servers in federated networking platforms. Examples are GNU social, Mastodon and other ActivityPub and OStatus implementations. Albin is connecting automatically with a large number of external instances operated by Third Parties. This is an ongoing experiment, and we reserve the right to turn of federation and access to connected networks for any reason. It could be legal, privacy or other reasons. Please give your opinions on this topic using #federation.

Third Party Services are not vetted, endorsed, or controlled by Albin.

By using Albin, you’re exposed to third parties by seeing posts in public feeds, by posting publicly, by posting personally to some other users, and in other ways. All use of Albin and the connected Third Party Services is at your own risk, and we shall not be responsible or liable to anyone for Third Party Services.

It is your responsibility to review the Third Party’s terms and policies before accepting followers on other services and before interacting with Third Party Services in any way.

Some of your data and content, for example when you post publicly or directly to a user on a connected network are transferred to a Third Party Services. Your data and content will handled in accordance with the Third Party’s privacy policy and practices. We do not have control over how a Third Party Service may use your data and content. You should carefully review Third Party Services’ data collection, retention, and use policies.

Third Party Services may not work appropriately with Albin, and we may not be able to provide support for issues caused by any Third Party Services.

If you have questions or concerns about how a Third Party Service operates, or need support, please contact the Third Party directly.

At any time, we may at our discretion, suspend, disable, or remove Third Party Services.

Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy.

As Albin asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by Albin violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Albin. Albin will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. Albin will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Albin or others. In the case of such termination, Albin will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to Albin.

Intellectual Property.

This Agreement does not transfer from Albin to you any Albin or third party intellectual property, and all right, title, and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Albin Apps. The words Albin, Albin.social, Albin.chat, Albin.cc, the Albin logo, the Mascot and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with Albin or our Services, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Albin. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with our Services may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of our Services grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Albin or third-party trademarks.

Open source

Some of our apps are open source. For each such app there are links to the relevant license and source code.

Changes.

We are constantly updating our Services, and that means sometimes we have to change the legal terms under which our Services are offered. If we make changes that are material, we will let you know by posting on one of our blogs, official account or by sending you an email or other communication before the changes take effect. The notice will designate a reasonable period of time after which the new terms will take effect. If you disagree with our changes, then you should stop using our Services within the designated notice period. Your continued use of our Services will be subject to the new terms. However, any dispute that arose before the changes shall be governed by the Terms (including the binding individual arbitration clause) that were in place when the dispute arose.

Software updates

By using or downloading our software. You give us permission to download and install upgrades and updates to develop the software.

Termination.

Albin may terminate your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your Albin account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using our Services. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

Disclaimer of Warranties.

Our Services are provided “as is.” Albin and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither Albin nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that our Services will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that when you download from Albin, or otherwise obtain content or services, it’s at your own discretion and risk.

Jurisdiction and Applicable Law.

Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of our Services will be governed by the laws of Germany, EU.

Limitation of Liability.

In no event will Albin, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this Agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to Albin under this Agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. Albin shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

General Representation and Warranty.

You represent and warrant that your use of our Services:

Will be in strict accordance with this Agreement;

Will comply with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation all applicable laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content, the transmission of technical data exported from the EU or the country in which you reside, privacy, and data protection); and

Will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Indemnification.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Albin, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of our Services, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.

Translation.

These Terms of Service were originally written in English. We may translate these terms into other languages. In the event of a conflict between a translated version of these Terms of Service and the English version, the English version will control.

Miscellaneous.

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Albin and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Albin, or by the posting by Albin of a revised version.

If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof.

You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions;

This agreement isn’t giving rights to third parties. You need our consent to transfer your rights or obligations under this agreement. Albin may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

Regarding feedback,we always appreciate feedback or other suggestions, but may use them without any restrictions or obligation to compensate you for them. We are not obliged to keep feedback confidential.

This document

This document is published under CC BY-SA 4.0. A Creative Commons Sharealike license, which means you’re are welcome to re-purpose it for your own use. Just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you, and if you don’t mind we’d appreciate a link to albinapps.com somewhere on your website.